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Thursday, 31 January 2013

I have been a bad blogger for a while but unfortunately work and family demands sometimes have a tendency to take over!!

Today, I thought I would tell you about a crafting group I started last year. We call ourselves JoLLieStaMpeRs - each capital letter represents each of the original members of the group, Joan (me), Lou, Lisa, Sarah, Moira and Rachel. We have more ladies now and we meet about once a month to have a crafty play.

Each playday we set ourselves a project and it never ceases to amaze me that although we all start off with the same products all our projects are so different! One project we decided to do is based loosely on Studio 490 Art parts but we improvised using cardboard for the bases, cardboard tubes and cardboard tubs for the stands.

Here is my version, I call it Steampunk Carousel!

The tube, circles and tub were covered in some lovely papers kindly given to me by Sarah. I die cut some spellbinders and alterations cogs painted them firstly with black and then bronze eco friendly acrylic paints and before the bronze paint was dry I used the blunt end of a paint brush in a stabbing motion to give them a worn aged effect. To dull the bronze the cogs were swiped with black soot DI. The largest cog was glued to the top of the tub and the others around the base and onto the tube. A length of vintage tape measure ribbon was wound up the tube.

I stamped out the 3 mannequins from the Kanban Jasper set, two of Jasper and one of each of the female mannequins, twice onto card and then onto the backing papers and paper pieced them back and front then stuck them back to back with a wooden kebab stick down the middle and this was poked into the tub at the bottom. I used the fringe from a pound shop scarf to dangle around the mannequins.

I had a load of small chiffon strips I had also bought from my local £1 shop - I love poking around in there to find bits and pieces to add to my crafty stash. I cut lots of different size circles with my spellbinders dies (I found putting the chiffon between copy paper worked a treat for a cleaner cut). Using a candle I seared the edges of all the chiffon circles which is a technique Leandra and Lynn from Artsy Crafts showed us - they called them illegal flowers! It was a bit time consuming given the numbers of flowers I created but well worth it for the crinkly effect. These were layered up and sewn together with a brass button and glued around the base and the top.

The three alterations cogs were glued together with a clock face in the centre of the largest one on both sides, brass metal flowers were stuck to the smallest one . I think the Chocolate Baroque Steampunk stamp sets are fab and I used this hat stamp from the Steampunkery set to sit at the top of my carousel. It was stamped onto the same papers as used for the paper piecing and some stickles were dabbed onto the winsg. The brass wings were cut with the heart alterations die and then dry embossed for texture.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this project although I didn't finish it at our playday - too much chatting methinks! LOL!.

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

The new challenge over at Anything Goes this time around is Monochrome. My fellow Craft Den DT divas have come up trumps with some fab designs so please pop over to have a look.

My contribution is a B&W card which was a commissioned card for my son by my daughter for his birthday. He loves to play chess so this was a good choice, even the sentiment is appropriate as he is in the army!

All the stamps used on this card are from the Creative Expressions Vintage Games stamp plate. There is a chequered stamp which was used to create the chessboard, this was matted onto black card then a white 6x6 card .One set of chess pieces were stamped in black onto white card and the other set in white ink on black card, all were embossed with clear embossing powder. All the pieces were cut out and mounted with glue gel onto the chessboard. The sentiment was cut out with spellbinders labels four.

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Happy New Year to you all! This is my first blog this year - afraid I have been MIA since the holidays. So much going on, so much to do and not enough hours in the day!

Anyway, still busy but need to get back to my DT duties - also need to craft! I have been having withdrawal symptoms lol!

The new challenge at Anything Goes is Buttons and Bows and my contribution is the card I made for my gorgeous granddaughter for Christmas with this challenge in mind.

I love the Molly Bloom stamps for childrens cards and my granddaughter loves the idea that the character has the same name as her, she also has the same endearing smile!

The papers are all Molly Bloom papers as are the coordinating ribbons. The circle frame was made using spellbinders dies and this was mounted with 3d foam pads onto a circle of backing paper. I used Molly Bloom stamps: Angel Molly, the star and the cookie jar which were stamped onto card, coloured with promarkers,cut out and mounted with glue gel. The hearts were stamped onto another backing paper, cut out and mounted with 3d foam pads.

The oval frames and letters are Clarity stamps and they are fab for names, sentiments, greetings etc. These were also cut out and mounted with 3d foam pads. A big bow topped with a button to finish.

Please pop over to Anything Goes to see the fab designs from my fellow teamies - and we have quite a few newbies to the team!

About Me

I live in Todmorden, am married to Rob between us we have 5 kids and 7 gorgeous grandchildren under the age of six.
Through crafting I have met so many lovely people and made some great friends.
I love all kinds of crafting but mixed media, patchwork quilting and machine embroidery are my favourites.